Many furniture manufacturers and their customers desire electronic locking mechanisms that use a keypad or other electronic means, such as an RFID Card reader or other security scanner, rather than traditional mechanical locks, to access and secure their office furniture and other kinds of storage units. In many instances, electronic locks are desirable to avoid the costs and inconvenience associated with replacing lost keys, rekeying locks because of staffing changes or security breaches, and the like. Manufacturers and users often prefer programmable electronic locks which can be reprogrammed to deal with staffing changes, and other security concerns, and to, for example, monitor access and usage of the locking devices, and the associated storage units.
Electronic locks in the prior art have been used to provide secure storage and access control in office furniture, storage cabinets and other compartments. These prior art locks have special latching mechanisms and housings which require the furniture manufacturers and others to make tooling changes to their furniture or make other potentially time consuming, difficult, and costly adaptations to accept the special locking mechanisms and housings of these prior art locks as replacements for pre-existing locking systems.
By way of example, FIG. 1 in published US Patent Application 2011 0056253 shows such an electronic lock with a unique housing and latching apparatus. FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 4 of U.S. Pat. No. 6,655,180 also show an electronic lock with a unique housing and latching system requiring custom installation.
Similarly FIG. 5 of U.S. Pat. No. 5,886,644 shows a unique installation of outer and inner housings for an electronic lock.
Furthermore, neither of these locks can be used with lateral filing cabinets or pedestal drawers because they cannot be easily adapted to existing central locking systems.
Canadian Patent No. 2,388,230 shows an example of a mechanical lock used in a central locking application for a lateral filing cabinet or other storage unit. In FIGS. 1 and 2 of that patent, the mechanical lock is shown with a zigzag shaped lock shaft and a round retainer. The illustrated lock shaft is connected to a locking core which is included in a standard “Double D” lock housing unit. An example of this mechanical lock is shown as being installed in a conventional 2 drawer locking cabinet.
Prior art locking systems come in various shapes, sizes and configurations. Many of these prior art locking systems include multi component drawer slide locking arrays.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a new electronic locking system that is conveniently interchangeable with existing mechanical locks without requiring costly tooling changes by office furniture manufacturers, and without using difficult or complicated installation procedures by installers, customers or other users.
By way of example, it is preferable that an electronic lock include a replaceable or interchangeable driver selected from a group of preselected drivers of different shapes, sizes, and configurations, the group being compatible for use with a plurality of tenons, cranks, linkage bars and other components in locking systems which are widely used in many standard locking applications within the industry.
In some instances, electronic locks of the prior art include a solenoid device operating with a linear action. Typically, this linear action engages or disengages a latching bolt or engages a shear pin to prevent a knob from turning.
Often, these prior electronic locks use a substantial number of batteries connected in series and require a large housing to store the batteries. Typically, these batteries require frequent replacement. Solenoid motors are not generally recommended for locking applications because their performance may be affected, or security features may be compromised, by strong magnets which may be brought into close proximity to the solenoid motors.
Many electronic locks in the prior art use DC motors to drive their latching mechanisms. US Patent Application 2007/0257773 Brian Hill et al shows an example of such a mechanism. The motor required to rotate the gear train including 7 gears draws a significant current and requires a large battery capacity. Typically this type of electronic lock requires 4 or more “AA” batteries which are installed in a separate housing inside the storage cabinet. The service life of these batteries is such that the batteries must be replaced frequently, thus leading to increased operating costs for users of these electronic locks.
In some prior art electronic locks, piezo-electric motors may be used to drive the latching mechanisms. However, such piezo-electric motors are typically more expensive than other conventional electric motors. In addition, piezo electric motors typically draw substantial electric currents, thus leading to shortened battery life and increased operating costs associated with frequent replacement of batteries.
Further, these prior electronic locks often utilize latches and detents to ensure that the lock can either be in a locked position, or in an unlocked position, to avoid a continuous application of electrical power from a substantial battery power supply.
Accordingly, it is also desirable to provide an electronic lock design which avoids a substantial consumption of electrical power.
It is also desirable to provide a compact electronic lock design.
It is also desirable to provide an alternative electronic lock design with enhanced security features.
It is also desirable to provide an electronic lock design, preferably with programmable features, to enable users to adapt the electronic lock to meet one or more user needs.
It is desirable to provide an electronic lock design which incorporates one or more of the foregoing features, or other useful features.